1. Food processing and automation

Process industries were not the first wave of industrialization and associated automation. It was only later (from the 1980s onwards) that these industrial sectors introduced automation. In the case of the manufacturing industries, the introduction of automation dates back almost a century. In this context, the food industry has the particularity of being both a material processing industry, essentially of agricultural origin, and a manufacturing industry, since many foods are manufactured objects. Packaging is a key stage, and the processing of objects, sometimes only slightly transformed, is an essential stage (sorting, assembly, cutting, etc.). In this context, it's important to be cautious when talking about automation, as we're not always talking about the same thing under a single term. What's more, automation is only a tool for controlled, improved production. First and foremost,...